In
the final year of his life, King became an outspoken opponent of the
Vietnam War, Johnson told a packed auditorium. However, he added,
today’s wars are not out of line with the iconic Nobel Peace Prize
winner’s teachings.

“I believe that if Dr. King were alive today,
he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our
nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the
American people vulnerable to terrorist attack,” he said.

Johnson
is a 1979 graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where King
graduated in 1948. He also attended school with King’s son, Martin
Luther King III, and was privy to the elder King’s speaking engagements
there.

Johnson said today’s service members might wonder whether
the mission they serve is consistent with King's message and beliefs. In
King’s last speech in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968 -- the night
before he died -- King evoked the biblical parable of the Good
Samaritan, Johnson noted.

According to the parable, a traveler
was beaten and robbed and left for dead. Two other travelers passed the
man as he lay alongside the road -- one was a priest. Both ignored the
man and continued on their way. Finally, a Samaritan traveling the road
showed compassion and took the stranger to an inn and saw to his care.

In his speech, King drew a parallel between those who passed by the man
on the road and those in Memphis who at the time hesitated to help
striking sanitation workers because they feared for their own jobs.

Johnson said King criticized those who are compassionate by proxy,
noting the civil rights leader told the audience in Memphis that night,
“The question is not, ‘If I stop to help this man in need, what will
happen to me?’ The question is, 'If I do not stop to help the sanitation
workers, what will happen to them?'"

Johnson compared today’s troops to the Samaritan, who chose to help instead of taking an easier path.

“I draw the parallel to our own servicemen and women deployed in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, away from the comfort of conventional jobs,
their families and their homes,” Johnson said.

Volunteers in
today’s military, he said, “have made the conscious decision to travel a
dangerous road and personally stop and administer aid to those who want
peace, freedom and a better place in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in
defense of the American people.

Further

Almost everyone hates Indiana's egregious "religious freedom" law - cue fierce backlash from businesses, churches, states, cities, legal experts and unhateful Hoosiers - but the most creative response came from an enterprising libertarian who delightedly used his new religious freedom to found the First Church of Cannabis - "One Toke, One Smile, One Love" - aimed at "celebrating all that is good in our hearts." His goal: "A House of Hemp Built with Love," and presumably lots of munchies.